Bridgeport High School graduate Mayf Nutter was named as a 2020 inductee into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, according to the group's Web site. Nutter is joined in the class by the Davis Twins, the Hammons Family, Ethel Caffie-Austin, and Larry Groce.

 

Here is the release on Nutter, and click HERE to see the page where you can click on photos of the other inductees to see their biographies.

 

Born into a musical family, singer/songwriter/actor Mayf Nutter (born Mayfred Nutter Adamson) first appeared on radio at age 12. Just out of high school, Mayf was the guitarist for Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame member Del Shannon. Later, he was the leader and front man for The New Christy Minstrels (whose alumni includes Kenny Rogers and Kim Carnes).

 

After playing locally and working in local TV and radio stations, he left college and moved to Atlanta in the mid-’60s, where he cut his debut recordings. He relocated to California in the late ’60s where, after a performance at The Troubadour, he was signed by Frank Zappa to his Straight Records label. Nutter’s song “Simpson Creek” – about a creek near his home in Bridgeport that had become polluted from mine runoff – is considered one of the first environmental songs.

 

During the early ’70s, Nutter guested on Buck Owens’s TV Ranch 56 times. He also appeared on television shows like The Waltons, Falcon Crest, Knots Landing and The Fall Guy. Nutter played three different characters on Days of Our Lives, won a “Best Actor” award for the TV series Lone Star Bar, narrated a few Disney films, and starred opposite James Stewart in the CBS-TV Series Hawkins on Murder.

 

Throughout the ’70s, he charted songs on a number of major labels. Occasionally, Nutter returned to Wheeling to participate in the Wheeling Jamboree’s “Jamboree in the Hills” and, in 1978, penned its theme song. In 1982, Nutter became the first American country performer to appear on Chinese television.

 

Mayf was the youngest honoree in the Nashville Country Music Hall of Fame, Walkway of Stars, and is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. On its opening day, The Bakersfield County Music Museum inducted Mayf Nutter and Buck Owens as its first honorees.

 

Editor's Note: Photo Courtesy of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.